**** DONE: GB-36 1/48 FW190A-5 - Axis Manufactured Aircraft of WWII

Yes, I see now. You must have edited post 17 as I didn't see the pics before. I was just composing this answer when you posted the above and appreciate the time you took to search and explain. What I need is this kind of bulge below:



One of the things I was trying to figure out is what happens to the shell casings with the MG FF since there is no ejection chute? Do they go back into the drum?

As for the fasteners on the cowl, I have scoured through the Smith & Creek books and there seems to be no easy answer as it almost appears that both types could be possible. I think that the fasteners could actually be a hybrid arrangement with the ones closest to the cockpit facing down and the two further forward facing up. This might be because of the MG17 trough being in the way for the rear most fasteners.

I noticed also that the IPMS site referenced above doesn't add the filler hatch on the port side for the A-8 so I'm now wondering if they have addressed all the differences between the types.

Oh I see now. I have also edited my post #19 with my explanation to your questions posted above. Sorry for that just a little bit tired today.

Wurger said:

IMHO the reason for that is that there aren't the large holes in the wing cover next to the hatches. Am I right?

The different shape of hatches are because of the ammo feeding system for the MG FF, MG 151/20. The MG FF cannon was fed with the revolving cylinder while the MG 151/20 was fed with the ammo belt. The revolving culinder kept the shell cases after firing and there was no need to eject them. The MG151/20 needed that because of the ammo belts. The different matter was the MK-108 30mm cannon. Although it was fed with the ammo belt its shells were more large and therefore the large slots appeared. However the hatches looked almost the same like those for the MG 151/20.

Click to expand...

A-8 with the MK-108 cannon

Ive learnt more about the FW detailing in 5 mins of skimming through this thread than in all my previous life experience.

Amazing work guys. keep it going...

Andy, I've been looking at photos and drawings, and it seems those cowling latches on the A-5 could be either configuration. I have some scale drawings (in the Kagero book) where they are shown opposite to those on the A-8 cowling panels photos as posted by myself and Karl.
If you think the drawings would be useful, let me know and I'll e-mail them to you.

Andy here you are two more shots I found. Both of them picture the port hatch. Although most images of the side indicated the ejector box without the side wall it appears that it can be as the starboard one.

OK guys thanks.

Terry, if it's not too much trouble I wouldn't mind getting those plans from you as I'm pretty light on this subject. However, I believe I've come to a conclusion on the fasteners, based on my search of photos and profiles in the Smith & Creek books:

A-1 thru A-6 inclusive - fasteners all pointed up
A-7 - furthest aft fastener points down, middle and forward ones point up
A-8, -9 - fasteners all point down. HOWEVER. there is a detailed photo series in Volume 2 of the book that captions the illustrated aircraft as an A-8 but I don't think it is an A-8 because it has the rounded, underwing bulges with no ejector chutes so it seems to me that even here we have suspect info.

At any rate, I'm convinced they face up on the A-5.

So now I have a decision to make. What I have here as a kit that more closely resembles an A-6 so either I modify the lower bulges to the earlier type (could possibly be done with home made resin parts or with Milliput) and continue with the original subject or find an A-6 scheme that I could do. I have decals for 2 early JG300 birds and could do "Nase" Muller's Green 3 rig but it is a very boring scheme. I might also be able to find an A-6 scheme that I can depict by cobbling together a bunch of spare decals.

Hmmmmm........[rubs beard and taps table].

No problem Andy. I'll sort and send the drawings later today.
Also, I'll put the entire book onto a CD and mail it to you - it's too big a file to send via e-mail.

EDIT:- Plans e-mailed, books to follow via Air Mail.

Got the plans Terry. You're a gem my friend. Thanks.

Still deciding if it's worth the trouble trying to make the correct hatches for the A-5 or go with the Wilde Sau A-6's.

Still trying to do the A-5 scheme and am mulling over options for the new bulges.

Option 1 was to carve the shape out of balsa, then melt some thin plastic sheet over it with a heat gun. RESULT: Plastic sheet curled up rather than melt around the balsa and then my balsa piece blew away and I can't find it. FAIL. Sound annoying game show wrong-answer buzzer.

Option 2: I noticed that the upper wing bulges were almost the correct shape so I made a silicon mould using the wing uppers and have poured in some resin. Jury is out but I'm betting FAIL since my cheap mould shrunk overnight.

Option 3 was to hunt down aftermarkets parts but have not found any. Probable FAIL unless someone knows of any.

Option 4 will be to use Milliput (not tried yet). Optimistic that this might work.

Option 5: Go back to carved balsa, glue that to the wing and fine tune with paint and putty. (not tried yet)

Option 6: Throw in the towel and do Hajo Hermann's Wilde Sau A-6 instead.

Andy, wouldn't be easier to use the chatches coming with the kit? Just sand down the incorrect bulges there. Then stick them to the wing and remove the incorrect panel lines with a putty and and engrave the new ones. This isn't essential at the stage. You may sand these wrong bulges down without attaching panels to the wing of course. The next step is to make these bulges. For the purpose you need some of balsa wood ( for making the formers of bulges ) and some of plasticine ( for making moulds.). Impress the formers in a flat piece of plasticine. Of course you have to remember you need some of the plasticine thickness in order to impress these formers. Having the moulds done, fill them with an epoxy resin. When the resin is hardened you may get the bulges out of the mould. Some sanding is needed to fit their bottoms to the wing curvature isn't it. But it shouldn't be any trouble for a such experienced modeller like you. Then the final touch with some of putty around the bulge-plastic panel base joints and voila.

Ah, maybe I didn't explain. Yes, I am using the kit hatches and will file down the wrong bulges and rescribe. The only issue with that will be that at that point I am committed to the fix and there's no going back to an A-6. The kit actually offers the area as a cutout so I was thinking that I could maybe cut the whole area out and replace it with card and the modified bulges and panel lines. That way I would preserve the A-6 bulges if I want to go back.

The method you describe is what I am doing now, except that I used the upper wing root bulges as the mould rather than balsa though the more I look at it, I'm not sure the uppers are exactly the right shape. I may yet go with what you suggest. Thanks Wojtek.

I see.

It's been a few days of experimentation but I'm at the point now where I'm committing to the A-5 and the original subject.

My first attempt at creating resin casts using the upper bulges was a fail for 2 reasons. One was that the bulges aren't quite the right shape. The second is that I used the wrong casting material as it's been so long that I've done this and I had two materials to chose from. I chose the wrong one - it ended up shrinking after I poured in the resin, resulting in some hideous looking casts which went straight into the trash. Below is the original mould casting set up using the wing uppers. This set up was unsuccessful.



I then went back to the idea of making a balsa master (I never did find the first one). Below you can see the process whereby I traced the shape of the bulge onto masking tape using a scale drawing as my basis. The tape was then cut out and stuck onto a block of balsa which I then shaped with a scalpel and sandpaper.




The balsa master was then pressed into plasticine per Wojtek's suggestion. I made 4 of these.



The 2 part resin was then mixed and I cast the 4 bulges. Though just 2 are needed, I made double in case one or two didn't turn out. The resin I have is clear so it's hard to see.




After a couple of days, the resin casts are popped from the mould. They look like this before being cleaned up and the plasticine is still stuck to this one in spots.




After the piece was cleaned up, the excess was cut away and the piece was thinned by running it over coarse sandpaper. Some final smoothing was then done. Once the casting was cleaned and shaped and found to be something that I could work with, it was time to commit to the A-5 version by carving away the incorrect bulges.





A trial fitting of the new blister shows that this will work. As you can see from the drawing adjacent to the kit parts, I will now need to fill some of the incorrect panel lines of the access hatch and rescribe them to suit the new blister.



At this stage the panel lines have been filled with primer and set aside to cure over night. In the meantime I will do some final shaping of the blisters to make sure they fit flush to the curved surface. I will then sand down the filled panel lines, scribe new ones, and then glue on the new blisters.

This is a big step and has been holding me back from getting on with this build. Once these blisters are on, I should get going in earnest. Thanks for stopping by guys.

Great work Andy, learning something here

That is outstanding work

Looks great so far Andy!

Good work there Andy.
But who is this Ernest bloke - is he a member ?

Where's the hat ?
It's cold outside ...........................